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March 21, 2007

Car of Tomorrow Attitude of Yesterday
Fantasy Insight-Bristol Spring Race
By Dennis Michelsen
The new car is here and just what this will mean to the racing at Bristol is anyone's guess. Crew Chiefs at testing last week were suggesting that setups from ten years ago would be back in style this week with the Car of Tomorrow debut. How will the front splitter react after damage? A few teams practiced without the splitter and the results were ugly with slow times and ill-handling cars. My gut feeling is that we will see even less passing than normal at Bristol without guys using the new Carbon Fiber Horn. There could be even more emphasis put on qualifying and certain guys stand out as the best bets if that is the case. How long will it take to get all fifty cars through technical inspection this week? Will the old-school drivers have the advantage? Which team will shock everyone and come to the first Car of Tomorrow race farther ahead of the competition? This week more than ever you better watch SPEED to catch all the news on Friday before you have to make your Fantasy picks!

Interesting Stats of the Week
Jeff Gordon won four straight Spring races from 1995-98

Darrell Waltrip won seven races in a row and twelve total

Front row has won 36% of all races at Bristol

Only five winners started 20th or worse (5% of all winners)

Ryan Newman 0 for last 26 races started from pole

Rowdy Fantasy
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Fan1st Fantasy Racing
Fan1st is giving race fans a chance to win the greatest prize in Fantasy Racing history. Can you imagine being picked up for the race at your hometown airport in a private jet and flown to Daytona International Speedway? You can invite three people along for the experience of a lifetime learning what it is like to be an owner in the Busch series! Fan1st.com is the sponsor on the No. 32 car driven by driver Dave Blaney in the Busch series for owner Todd Braun. This year their Fantasy Racing game is included in their Diamond Membership package or you can purchase entry to the race game separately. Fan1st puts the fan in charge voting on important team matters! Their Fantasy Racing game has the best prize every offered and is a bargain to enter for $75 for the whole season! You build your team selecting a driver, crew chief, manufacturer, and owner in a salary cap format.

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Prize Note: Tom from Connecticut wins a Diamond Membership playing Fantasy Insight's FLIP FLOPS. Listen this week on www.racetalkradio.com Wednesday night at 10pm ET to see how you can play and win this week's prize!

Fantasy Racing by the Numbers
My unique Power Ratings are back and better than ever for 2007! Combining the three most important factors the numbers never lie. Separate the pretenders from the contenders each week with track type, horses for courses, and consistency factored into one easy to use Power Rating. The key numbers to remember are 80 and 250. A rating of 80 is an acceptable risk for any of the individual ratings and 250 is the cut off for the complete Power Rating. Drivers topping these minimums have a much higher percentage of top ten finishes over the past three seasons! (Only drivers meeting the minimum will be shown in the individual ratings with the top 25 for Power Ratings shown)

Picking a Winner
Each week I will attempt to handicap the winners showing the three drivers I think are most likely to come home a winner! Also the TOP ROOKIE and BEST OUTSIDE TOP 20 will be forecast so you get a complete handicapping picture for the upcoming race.

Winner-Jeff Gordon
Won four straight with old-school setup

Place-Matt Kenseth
Super consistent driver will not beat himself

Show-Tony Stewart
Best driver will find way to get speed out of new car

Top Rookie-David Ragan
Don't expect much more than a top 20 from any rook this week

Outside Top 20 in Points- Sterling Marlin
Will Ginn Racing surprise again with COT?